"At the age of 28, Joanie, a computer mapper, was a 17 year veteran of jigsaw competition. She had started by racing her mother to assemble little wooden ones, and the two-year-old prodigy liked to handicap herself by turning her pieces upside down so she couldn't see the pictures."
Question: Joanie or her Mom?
Answer: In both cases the pronouns, her & she, refer to Joanie.
Question: In addition, what does that mean by from the two year old girl to see the pictures?
ANSWER: Your question is not quite clear. However, I think it simply means that when Joanie turns her pieces over (or upside down) that she can not see the design or pattern on the puzzle tile pieces. She only sees the, usually grey color, backside which puts her at a disadvantage in putting the puzzle together. Thus, she only relies upon the interlocking and tesselating cut of the oddly shaped pieces to solve the puzzle. However, her mother has the advantage of seeing the picture colors (design or pattern) to aid her in solving the puzzle.
REPLY: Thank you for giving me this answer, however, I am not quite sure why Joanie liked to handicap herself in puzzle game. Is it a reason to have her mom's aid to solve puzzle game in a much easier way? With gray pieces (backside of puzzle piece) she definitely would be in trouble solving the puzzle, I guess.
RESPONSE: The reason she turned the pieces over was to make it more challenging to herself. Since she was a prodigy, the puzzle was much too easy for her as she could see how the pieces were marked by color and pattern and easily fit them together. And, yes too, it would give her mother a better chance in her part of the game, whom Joanie could outpace quite easily in normal play. Please understand that the upsidedown piece is a mirror image, but must be turned upright again to fit the position. In other words, like in organic chemistry, the piece while it is upsidedown exhibits chirality and is non-superimposable on its mirror image (that open or unoccupied space in the puzzle architectural layout) because it is three-dimensional, but, once turned upright again, it of course, will fit like a glove. One really must have a sort of abstract ability or way of seeing things backwards to play well that way. Now, apparently, there would be two ways to play the "put together" puzzle game. One, divide up the pieces evenly and begin by taking turns to add a piece on to an arbitrarily chosen center piece. The other way to play is have one person timed in doing the whole puzzle and once completed, scrambled, and the other person would begin assemblage and be timed. I hope this helps. "Ambiguous Bill"
